Food, family and memories are as intertwined in the South as if woven on the same thread. At any function we attend, from a party to a wedding to a funeral, we are as likely to talk as much about the food that was there, as we are about why we are gathered. ~Mary Foreman

I'm your cook, not your doctor. ~PAULA DEEN

I found out what the secret to life is: friends. Best friends. ~Ninny Threadgoode

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Mississippi Roast, made using a rump or chuck roast, but with my own signature and minus the full stick of butter. A moist, tender and delicious roast with a wonderful gravy and a nice spicy bite.

Mississippi Roast ... My Way

There's a roast blazing across the interwebs and the world of Pinterest called "Mississippi Roast," and if you google it, you'll find it everywhere. I have no idea where the recipe began, or even how the recipe got the name Mississippi attached to it, because best I can figure, it hasn't got a thing to do with Mississippi - unless somebody who threw it together one day just happened to be from Mississippi.

Essentially, you add a raw chuck roast to a slow cooker, sprinkle an envelope of dry ranch dressing mix and envelope of au jus mix on top, and then you plop a full stick of butter on top, along with a 4 or 5 pepperoncini peppers, cover and cook on low for about 8 hours. No liquid is added at all. Just the butter.

Okay. Indeed, I am a lover of butter like anybody else, no doubt, and of course, you could add a stick of butter to just about anything and make it très délicieux, but even I think adding a full stick of butter to an already fatty chunk of beef might just be, well... a tiny bit excessive - yes, even for this Mississippian.

No offense meant to those of you who have tried the original Mississippi Roast and already love it, butter and all, but I was curious enough to give this a try. Minus the stick of butter. And with my own spin. And, well... if you enjoy cooking, you know how it goes. Once I got started adding my own signature to this Mississippi Roast... I just really couldn't help myself.

Pickled jalapenos, golden peperoncini and giardiniera are all staples in my fridge, for one, because I love those Italian Beef Sandwiches. Golden peperoncini is a mild, sweet pepper with just a hint of heat, and giardiniera - often referred to as hot mix - usually contains hot peppers such as serrano, an extremely hot chile pepper, that provides a spicy kick for this roast. I didn't want it too spicy, so I put them in whole, just to add the flavor and a nice punch of heat.

To make up for the loss of butter, I thought the recipe could benefit from some little changes that don't take much time, but add lots of flavor. So I studded the roast with garlic.

I seared it, and sauteed some sliced onion in the drippings.

Added some chunks of celery to the crockpot. Whisked together the envelopes with a little Coke and some herbs. If you don't want the sweetness from the Coke, you can sub in beef broth, beer, wine or plain water.

Added a bay leaf, a whole pickled jalapeno, 4 golden peperoncini peppers and 1/2 cup of Italian mix giardiniera. Poured the seasoned Coke in, and left out the butter, adding only 1 tablespoon at the end, to finish the gravy. This roast does have a nice spicy bite to it. To make it milder, leave out the jalapeno and giardiniera, but the golden peperoncini will give it just a bump of heat, though you can certainly leave those out too.

Best. Pot Roast. EVER.

And, because it's not braised in anything but its own natural fat, it's much more sliceable, where the butter braised roast tends to shred.

One note. If you do decide to try the original with the full stick of butter, just leave out the liquid and be sure to use unsalted butter. There's plenty of sodium present in the packaged mixes, so don't be tempted to add any additional salt to the roast either.

Stud the roast by using the tip of a knife to cut multiple small slits in areas all over the meat and inserting slivers of garlic into each cut. Season roast on both sides with pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of fat or oil in a large skillet and brown roast on both sides. Add the celery chunks to the bottom of a 6 quart slow cooker and place roast on top. Add onion to skillet and cook for 3 minutes. Transfer to top of the roast.

Meanwhile, whisk together the ranch dressing, gravy mix, thyme and rosemary. Add the Coke and whisk in until well blended; set aside. Add the bay leaf, whole jalapeno, peperoncini and giardiniera to the top of the roast and pour the Coke mixture over the top. Cover and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours, or on high 4 to 5 hours. Total time will be dependent on size of roast.

To thicken gravy, use a long fish spatula to remove the roast and loosely tent with foil to keep warm. Skim any excess fat off the top of the juices and carefully transfer the contents of the crockpot to a saucepan. Stir in the tablespoon of butter. Make a slurry of a tablespoon of cornstarch with just enough water to dissolve the cornstarch. Whisk into the gravy, bring up to a boil, reduce and simmer until thickened.

Cook's Notes: Substitute 1 cup of water, low sodium beef broth, wine or beer, in place of the Coke, or if you're adventurous, eliminate the liquid and add that whole stick of unsalted butter on top, like in the original "Mississippi Roast." There's plenty of sodium present in the packaged mixes, so use unsalted butter, and don't be tempted to add any additional salt to the roast, either way. This roast does have a nice spicy bite to it. Golden peperoncini are a milder, sweet pepper with just a hint of heat, but to make it milder leave them out, along with the jalapeno and giardiniera. Puree the veggies and add those to the gravy for extra flavor.

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now Mary, that is a roast recipe - that gravy covered hunk of meat is tantalizing... there are so many elements in this recipe, as flavorful as Mississippian fare is, the name is just not enough - a perfected roast recipe if you ask me...

Oh Mary...you said the magic words in our house: Giardiniera and gravy! :) My husband is already in love with your 3 packet roast, this recipe will push him into full on swoon! Can't wait to make this one! Thanks for sharing another great recipe. The Cajun is one lucky man to have you cooking for him! :)

Thanks Chris! Lots of folks rave over the one with the butter & don't get me wrong - I certainly DO love butter!! But it just seemed unnecessary with this cut of beef. Thanks for the vote of confidence there!!

It did!! Course I love the aroma of beef searing in a pan too. And thanks so much Kandy. I'm no photographer by any stretch of the imagination but I do try to convey what the food at least looks like! Thank you.

Hey Libby!! I'm a Biloxi girl!! :) This roast really is good. The original has a stick of butter but frankly I thought that was too much and really unnecessary. I love butter, but this roast doesn't need that!!

18 degrees in Brooklyn, and this just came out of my slow cooker! Followed it almost to the letter, but forgot to buy Coke, so I used leftover beer and Diet Coke. Didn't slice as nice as yours, but it is delicious. All came out good with some everyday mash and buttered string beans.

We made the roast for Sunday lunch and it tastes amazing! I know that's a few hours away but it just smelled so good I had to sneak a bite. I am having to guard the crockpot to keep everyone else from doing the same :-) I used wine instead of Coke since we do not drink sodas and I left out the jalapeños because our kids do not like spicy foods, they must get that from their Yankee Dad lol. Absolutely fantastic!

Ms. Mary, what a find your website turned out to be. The recipe came out delicious and I'll be trying several other things my taste buds demand. Thank you, and kudos for the love and effort you put into your contribution. Ed in Florida.

Ms. Mary, this came out delicious. What a find your website turned out to be !!! I'll be trying several other things my taste buds demand. Thank you for the love and effort you put into your contribution. Edu in Florida.

This is my first time on this site and will put it on my faves. I have never heard of Mississippi roast. I have heard of putting Coke on a ham, that seems to be a southern thing, or any kind of soda. That ranch package is very salty, I wish they would put out a low sodium one. Thanks for mentioning a pickled jalopeno pepper, most recipes leave me hanging on that one. My pot roast is just a German one my grandma passed on down, A simple rump with vinegar, bay leaf and time. I can't wait to try this.

I for one will never make anything that is on Pinterest because I see hundreds of recipes with hundreds of people who say that it "Looks" good. No one but the author has made it but they "Look" at it and "Pin" it. That tells me that there of hundreds of recipes on Pinterest that are just pretty pictures. I have to admit that there were some tries on this recipe and it turned out good. But to try something on Pinterest NO WAY!

Actually, I think that the recipes that you see on Pinterest are pretty reliable and probably much more so than some of the recipe mine sites where folks who try the recipe may rate it, but it's very often rated on multiple changes that they made and not at all the original recipe that was posted to begin with. Pinterest is certainly far more reliable than Facebook where recipes are sometimes stolen from sites like mine and then ingredients are adjusted in the recipe text so that they can "legally" take it - without trying it with the adjustments of course! If the pretty picture links back to a recipe blog such as mine here where you can see what they have done step by step, or even you can tell by the overall collection of recipes on that same site, then I'd say you can pretty much rely on it being a good recipe. If it doesn't, it could be that the pretty picture belonged to somebody else to begin with and the recipe may not even match the photo and is likely unreliable.

I have to agree with you on this, as I have tried several of the recipes posted on pinterest and they were horrible ..... however, on the other hand, I have tried a lot of them and they were delicious. Think you just kinda have to judge for yourself what you think is going to be good by the ingredients and by who is posting them .... a lot of mine are taken from well known people and their own sites.

Geesh Mary, you're killing me ! This was the best roast I think I've ever had. I didn't use the optional giardiniera because Hubby didn't want me too and I added a whole bell pepper cut into large sections for easy removal and discard, but other than that I followed the recipe exactly. I've never heard of adding Coke to roast but I do sometimes cook my ham in a whole 2 liter of Coke. I never followed a recipe for roast I always just threw stuff in but from now on this will be my go to recipe. The whole family said it was delicious and asked me to use this recipe from now on. Your recipes are so good I have a folder for just Deep South Dish in my saves. The other recipes not from this site go into the usual categories. I wanted to be able to distinguish your recipes from the others easily. That is high praise but you deserve it! Thanks again for another absolutely delicious recipe! You are probably going to be tired of me posting comments on all these delicious recipes, but I can't stop myself haha!

Your website it my favorite ever!!!! I have made many of your recipes and they have all turned out perfect. I love everything Mississippi. My daughter n I are moving to the Biloxi area next year. She is going to southern miss next fall. And we cannot wait to immerse ourselves in the lifestyle. I can't wait till your cookbook comes out!! Plan on cooking every recipe in it!!!

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